Stella Maris Monastery, Carmelite monastery on Mount Carmel, Haifa, Israel

Stella Maris Monastery is a three-storey Discalced Carmelite monastery of tan stone on the slopes of Mount Carmel in Haifa, built as a square around a large inner courtyard on its eastern side. Its ground floor has thick walls with few small barred openings, and the church is crowned by a dome on a drum with a small gold cupola and cross. A raised stone terrace with a balustrade and a statue on a pedestal stands before the entrance.

The Carmelites settled on Mount Carmel in 1192 after the Third Crusade, initially inhabiting caves in the Wadi Siah valley. Over the centuries, they expanded their settlement into the monastery complex that stands today.

The name Stella Maris, Latin for Star of the Sea, is a title of the Virgin Mary as protector of sailors and fishermen; a local tradition holds it derives from a corruption of stilla maria, drop of the sea. Every second Sunday after Easter a procession carries a copy of the Madonna statue from the Holy Family Church downtown up to the monastery, recalling its return in 1919 after being hidden during the First World War. In the screen around the sanctuary, small lights mark Carmelite houses worldwide.

The monastery sits on the western slope of Mount Carmel, above the Stella Maris lighthouse and cable car station, and is reached by road or a long stairway from the German Colony. The ground floor was built with thick walls and small barred openings, so the interior stays dim; the church is entered from the courtyard. A pyramidal monument in the grounds commemorates French soldiers who died in 1799.

In a room right of the church entrance, the friars display finds from the Stella Maris lighthouse site, where a Byzantine monastery and later a Crusader fortress stood. Among them is the foot of a large statue inscribed "Zeus Helios of Carmel", and a 1958 Nativity model made by the monks.